Roll Back Sales Tax to Provide Permanent Relief

With skyrocketing gasoline prices, you may feel it would be cheaper to drill for your own fuel rather than pay through the nose for a fill-up. But before setting out to discover the nearest oil well, you should know there are less drastic measures to lowering the price of gas.

In our community, residents rely heavily on their cars to commute to work, shuttle kids across town or just pick up a few groceries. Nearly two bucks for a gallon of gas quickly adds up and hits the wallet.

The cause of the current gas price crisis is a decision by the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries last year to reduce supplies when prices neared their lowest mark in nine years.

However, a large portion of gas prices can be attributed to government taxes and regulations. Every gallon incurs an 18.4% federal excise tax, an 18-cent state excise tax and up to 15 cents in other state and local taxes. Overall, taxes make up roughly 50 cents of the cost of every gallon of gas.

Although OPEC has promised to minimally increase the oil supply, it could take as long as two months before any increase in production reaches the pumps. And with more road trips expected in the summer months, the demand for fuel will increase, as will the price.

At best, OPEC’s promise will provide a modest and temporary solution. But rolling back the sales taxes on gasoline would give us permanent and immediate relief that would remain unchanged.

According to R.L. Polk & Co., which tracks the automobile industry, a typical two-car family travels nearly 30,000 miles every year. With the average vehicle getting roughly 24 miles per gallon, the state sales tax on gas adds up. Assembly Bill 1706, which I am co-authoring, would eliminate this sales tax, saving motorists about 15 cents per gallon, or nearly $200 annually.

The price of gas could also be lowered if we repealed the “Gore Gas Tax.” This tax was passed in 1993, with Vice President Al Gore casting the deciding vote in the Senate. Although Gore’s tie-breaking vote is said to have been an effort to ease the federal deficit, it also helped increase the federal excise tax by 4.3 cents.

Today’s federal budget may run a surplus that reaches $4.2 trillion over the next 10 years. Clearly, there is no longer a need for Gore’s tax. That is why members of the state Legislature, including myself, are calling on Congress to eliminate this federal tax to further alleviate the hardships imposed by the high price of fuel.

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The liberals in Sacramento have tried to scare us by saying that repealing the state sales taxes on gas would put our roads and highways in jeopardy. But the truth is that none of these sales tax dollars go toward our transportation needs. They instead go directly to Sacramento. And with California’s current $10-billion surplus, we can more than afford the loss in revenue. In fact, the cost of wiping out these taxes would only be approximately $1.6 billion. Clearly this is within our means, and it translates to significant and immediate relief for working families.

So what are the liberals afraid of?

If they’re afraid that local governments will lose revenue as a result of eliminating gas taxes, they should know that this proposal ensures that all sales taxes currently received by local governments would be back-filled with general fund money. The intention of this legislation is to reduce the price of gasoline; it is not to harm local governments.

Repealing the state sales tax and the Gore Gas Tax would immediately lower prices. However, the Legislature has refused similar proposals in the past. To lower gas prices now, we are calling on you, as residents of California, for help. If you support repealing the state sales tax on gasoline and the so-called Gore Gas Tax, then call your government officials. Call President Clinton and ask him to support repealing the federal tax. Call Vice President Gore and ask him to repeal the tax he helped invoke. Finally, call Gov. Gray Davis and Assembly Speaker Antonio Villaraigosa (D-Los Angeles) and encourage them to support eliminating the state sales tax on gas.

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High gas prices are a hardship, especially in communities as sprawling as ours where cars are more a necessity than a luxury. We could get immediate relief if we put forth the effort. Paying nearly $2 for every gallon of gasoline is outrageous.